Donegal people are less concerned about climate change than those in most of the country, according to a new poll.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows that 79% of those surveyed here are worried about the topic, six per cent lower than the national average.
The north west and north eastern counties of Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan and Louth also polled 79%.
When asked if they believed climate change would harm them personally, 59% here said yes and 41% answered no.
However, 96% of Donegal people surveyed believed the issue would harm future generations.
The EPA today released new interactive maps of Ireland that show national, regional, and county level data about people’s climate change beliefs, attitudes, policy preferences and behaviours.
This is the third key output of the Climate Change in the Irish Mind study, undertaken by the EPA and the Yale University Program on Climate Change Communication in support of the National Dialogue on Climate Action.
The maps allow visual exploration of data from the Climate Change in the Irish Mind survey.
Speaking about the climate change opinion maps, Dr Eimear Cotter, Director of the Office of Evidence & Assessment said:
“The new interactive climate opinion maps bring the data from the EPA’s Climate Change in the Irish Mind study to life.
“At a national level the maps show a consistent picture across the country of high levels of understanding about climate change and support for climate action with little variation depending on where people live. We see a picture of attitudes, behaviours, and policy preferences to climate change across counties and regions that are closely aligned with high levels of awareness and worry about climate change in each area. For example, almost nine in ten adults in all regions believe Ireland has a responsibility to act on climate change and almost eight in ten people in all counties believe acting on climate change will improve our quality of life.”
